KZ ATE – The best budget headphones?

There’s a lot of talk right now about the KZ family of IEMs, specifically the KZ ATE. I recently received a pair and have them under evaluation for a future review. I’ll give you a preview: they’re fantastic and live up to all the hype.

KZ is Knowledge Zenith, a Chinese earphone manufacturer making a name for themselves with some outstanding budget IEMs. Most reviews praise them not only for their excellent sound but much higher than expected build quality in the under $20 (and even under $10!) market.

Bottom line: 3.5/5 Great build quality, solid isolation, and distortion free analytical sound suitable for electronic genres. While the sound is crisp and clear it is not delicate and can be fatiguing. Good budget buy – no regrets.

I’ll have a review of the KZ ATE up soon. In the meantime, you can purchase them for a low as $9.19 at the Official KZ store on Aliexpress or on Amazon for slightly more. I paid $15.90 and had them in two days via Amazon Prime.